Sunday, March 15, 2009

British rider Jeremy Hunt, riding for Cervélo TestTeam, is the Lanterne Rouge of the final stage of Paris-Nice, in 92nd place for the day. The overall Lanterne Rouge of the general classification was Alexandr Dyachenko, a Kazakh rider on the Astana team. 159 riders began the stage race, so Dyachenko finished ahead of over 40% of the starters.

Several former Tour de France Lanternes Rouges appeared in the race this year, including Aitor Hernandez (Euskaltel) (Stage 2, 2006), Aleksandr Kuschynski (Liquigas) (Stages 1-3, 2007; stage 1, 2008), who shared an early breakaway in Stage 2 of Paris-Nice and ended up 44th and 42nd overall. Sébastien Joly, the French rider on Française Des Jeux, Tour de France Lanterne Rouge for 9 stages in 2006, was a DNF.